For years, “child-proof” safety latch assemblies, or “safety latches”, have been designed and used, primarily in households, to prevent access by young children to drawers and doors of cabinets that may store potentially harmful or dangerous items. Such safety latches are typically designed to be difficult for young children to operate, but may be easily operated by an adult.
Unfortunately, previous safety latches have experienced a variety of drawbacks. For example, in some cases, installation and proper adjustment of the safety latches can be time-consuming and difficult when ensuring that components are mounted and aligned properly, especially in the confined cabinet spaces in which such safety latches are typically employed. Additionally, some existing safety latches can cause the cabinet surfaces on which the latch operates to become marred or damaged due to the manner in which the safety latch is secured to the cabinet. For example, many presently available safety latches require drilling or adhesives to secure the safety latch to the drawers and doors of the cabinets. Adhesive-mounted devices sometimes provide unreliable adhesive strength, but may also cause damage to the cabinet finish upon removal. Further, some existing safety latches operate by allowing the door or drawer panel to be opened to a limited extent (also sometimes referred to herein as “pre-travel”), in order to activate or deactivate the latch mechanism. With such safety latches, this slight opening of the cabinet door or drawer can result in babies and/or young children getting their fingers pinched between the door or drawer and the body of the cabinet. Additionally, such pre-travel can also provide excessive dynamic loading on existing latches as users often like to open and close the cabinet door or drawer by slamming it back and forth.
Accordingly, it is desired to provide a safety latch that is able to effectively overcome the various drawbacks associated with presently available safety latches. Additionally, it is appreciated that many kitchen and bathroom cabinets have bumpers between the door or drawer and the front face of the cabinet. These bumpers can have varying thicknesses for a given cabinet design, and other properties such as sound dampening. Thus, it is further desired to provide a safety latch that can work effectively with cabinets, with or without such bumpers, e.g., even with cabinets using bumpers of the largest thickness found to date.